The Most Successful ACC Coaches

At the midpoint of the ACC regular season, two programs that ordinarily hang around the top of the standings, North Carolina and Miami, are near the bottom. Virginia, the preeminent regular-season power for the past half-decade, is uncommonly vulnerable, mired in the middle of the pack along with Clemson, Syracuse and Virginia Tech, which usually finish there.

Three perennial achievers – Duke, Florida State and Louisville – remain clustered at the top. The chronic laggards – Boston College, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest – lurk around the .500 mark.

UNC and UVa are going through what figures to be a short rough patch. Like a relay squad, Virginia Tech is trying to maintain stride while switching coaches. Clemson, rarely consistently superior, remains consistently competitive. Notre Dame and injury-riddled Miami figure to rebound later, if not sooner; they’re intermittent front-rank programs.

The Eagles, Yellow Jackets and Demon Deacons have been also-rans for most of the past decade; only the verdict on the regime of Georgia Tech’s Josh Pastner hints at better results to come.

While the ACC is not up to par, with about half of its teams around the .500 mark overall, prospects are that such weakness won’t last. Fully a third of its programs are directed by coaches with the most wins ever at their respective schools.

To some extent, coaches’ career won-lost records and stature in their schools’ annals portend prowess, if not in ’20 than in the immediate future. Winners catch the knack of winning, as losers do the converse.

Four schools – Louisville, Miami, Pitt and Virginia Tech – have career leaders whose tenures entirely preceded their programs joining the ACC in the 21^st century. Everett Case and Murray Greason, leaders at NC State and Wake, respectively, spanned Southern Conference and ACC membership at those schools.

Duke’s Krzyzewski has more wins than any coach in major college history. His closest pursuer, Syracuse’ Jim Boeheim, had 101 wins “vacated” from five different seasons due to NCAA edicts for improper conduct under association rules. And at Georgia Tech Pastner had 22 wins stripped as part of an NCAA punishment handed down in 2019.